No abstract

The high crystallinity of graphene quantum dots-ZnO nanocomposites is considered to have a significant effect in improving the carrier lifetime for enhanced photocatalytic degradation. The graphene quantum dots-ZnO nanocomposites were synthesized by adding graphene quantum dots solution into starting precursors during the precipitation. Characterization was performed using various techniques. High crystallinity of graphene quantum dots-ZnO nanocomposites is obtained in terms of increased crystal size and decreased dislocation density. The improved crystallinity increases the carrier lifetime on the material surface for the functional improvement of photocatalytic material. Photocatalytic test of methylene blue and methyl orange was performed under UV irradiation. Degradation rate constant reaches the maximum value for both organic dyes for the appropriate preparing condition of graphene quantum dots-ZnO nanocomposites. The graphene quantum dots-ZnO nanocomposites were then applied to degrade commercial glyphosate herbicide contaminants for an agricultural wastewater treatment investigation. The investigation aims to demonstrate a facile useful way of herbicide contaminant reduction for the better health of farmers. The graphene quantum dots-ZnO nanocomposites show an enhancement of the photocatalytic process with improved degradation rate constant (23% increased) in comparison to pure ZnO. Therefore, this work demonstrates that graphene quantum dots-ZnO nanocomposites can be used as a photocatalytic material for degrading organic dyes and commercial herbicide contaminants owing to its low-cost and environmental-friendly properties.

Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) were prepared by using pulsed laser ablation with and without cover slide. The cover slide was used to confine atoms/ions in order to reach supersaturation condition. The obtained Au NPs were investigated by UV-vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and zeta potential measurement. The absorbance spectra exhibited its absorption peak at around 520 nm for both Au NPs ablating with and without cover slide. It was found that Au NPs ablating with cover slide exhibited smaller size and size distribution (10.6 ± 5.9 nm) than those of without cover slide (34.1 ± 21.5 nm) at laser power of 5.00 mJ/pulse. This is due to supersaturation effect and re-irradiation effect caused by cover slide that trapped atoms/ions of gold and trapped Au NPs, respectively. Also, the zeta potential of Au NPs had a negative value suggesting negative surface charge. The lowest zeta potential was observed for Au NPs ablating with cover slide at 5.00 mJ/pulse and it was in consistent with an observation of the highest pH value. In addition, the Au NPs ablating with cover slide at 5.00 mJ/pulse showed the least change with time indicating the most stable Au NPs which was in consistent with the lowest zeta potential results. Thus, pulsed laser re-irradiation could be used for size reduction of Au NPs prepared by pulsed laser ablation in water media.

The Ultraviolet‐shielding (UV‐shielding) and water resistance properties of graphene quantum dots/polyvinyl alcohol (GQDs/PVA) composite-based film have been investigated. The GQDs/PVA composite-based films were fabricated with different GQDs concentrations of 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt%. The optical property of GQDs was carried out by utilizing fluorescence spectroscopy. Characterizations of GQDs/PVA composite-based films were performed by using FT-IR spectroscopy, and UV-vis spectroscopy. It was found that GQDs exhibited the strongest excitation wavelength in the UV range. GQDs/PVA composite-based films offered an improved UV-shielding capacity when compared to PVA films and glass. Particularly, the GQDs/PVA composite-based film containing 20 wt% GQDs exhibited a UV transmittance of 9.8%, combined with 84% optical transparency. For humidity environment application, the highest contact angle was explored for the 10 wt% GQDs contents suggesting sustainability for humidity environment application. Accordingly, GQDs played an important role in UV-shielding by considering the effect of UV absorption of GQDs and the UV absorption of GQDs can be explained in terms of the photon excitation by UV light. This GQDs/PVA composite could be potentially applied as transparent UV-protective coatings for pharmaceutical packing, food products packing, and UV-shielding or UV filter glass.

There are still many unknowns regarding assembly processes. In this work, we demonstrate the capability of atomic force microscopy (AFM) adhesion mapping in revealing the conditions that promote the light-induced assembly of nanoparticles (NPs) on nanostructured surfaces in inorganic systems, both in macroand nanodomains. Gold (Au) NPs and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures are employed as the model materials, and different characterization techniques are used for extracting the relationship between the materials' crystallinity, stoichiometry, and morphology as well as surface adhesion mapping information. The light-induced assembly of Au NPs is associated with the attraction forces between the opposite surface charges of the NPs and preferential ZnO sites, which can be identified by adhesion mapping. We show that the yield of Au nanoclusters assembled onto the ZnO surface depends on the crystallinity and stoichiometry of ZnO and is not due to the roughness of the surface. The presented experiments demonstrate that AFM adhesion mapping can be used as an invaluable tool for predicting the strength and directions of assembly processes.